I have (proudly) never seen Deepthroat. Neither am I a fan of, nor watch porn, but even I know who Linda Lovelace is. I also have to say that I was deeply uncomfortable when, prior to this film being released, topless pictures of Amanda Seyfried were released to the press. This film is about a women who was raped, exploited and forced into porn; so a film about a women being exploited, which is promoted by a women being exploited is just uncomfortable. So it was with trepidation that I decided to review it.

To be fair, I think the film is good and harrowing. Showing Linda Lovelace as the victim I believe she was. The script is great, the acting is top-notch and the film does justice to the storyline. But I do think the underwater shot of Amanda Seyfried swimming in just a pair of pants was unwarranted. More thought should have been given in a film which is about rape, porn and exploitation. Some of Lovelace is very hard to watch, without giving away too much, Lovelace’s abuseive husband, Chuck played brilliantly by Peter Sarsgaard, beats her, rapes her and even sells her. He’s the one who gets her into porn, almost destroying her in the process. A brilliant and almost unrecognisable Sharon Stone plays Mum, a religious, traditional woman who find it hard to deal with her daughter’s work, and in the end feels guilty for turning her away when her daughter confesses her husband beats her, “What did you do to make him beat you? There must have been a reason.” Hard to believe a mother would say this to her child, and the scene where dad, played by the always amazing Robert Patrick, talks to his daughter, confessing he has seen her movie and had to walk out, “Is it something we did?…I had to walk out, that wasn’t my little girl up there. I didn’t recognise her” he weeps down the phone.

This is not a film to watch when feeling fragile and we had a male writer even refuse to watch it (he thought the topless pictures of Amanda Seyfried that were released were inappropriate). In the end I do think this is a good film that tells the story well, it just should have been less exploitative. Some of it made for uncomfortable viewing. But it does at least show how destructive porn is. A few people seemed annoyed that the film is from Lovelace’s point-of-view but to me that seems obvious: this is her story, but less of Amanda Seyfried naked next time would make their story stronger, and do more justice to Linda Lovelace.

Lovelace is available on Blu-ray, DVD and download to own and rent from December 23

LOVELACE DISC INFORMATION:
Released:            23^rd December 2013
RRP:                     £17.99 (DVD), £21.99 (BD)
Certificate:          18 (UK)
Running Time:    89 minutes
Extras:                 Behind Lovelace